Socio-legal Analysis of the Impact of Food Insecurity and Hunger on the Right to Health of Urban Poor Living in the State of Gujarat

Abstract

This study was conducted in the urban areas of Gujarat state to understand the current extent and severity of food insecurity and hunger on health of the people in the state. The authors adopted a multi-method approach in this study, which comes to light as a combination of both doctrinal and empirical methodology. To understand the status of right to food in India, global and Indian status of hunger, food insecurity, malnutri-tion and its impact on health, the authors have looked into the primary authoritative sources like international covenants, conventions, declarations, the Constitution of India, Legislations and the Judicial Pronouncements, and the secondary sources like reports of international and national organizations, websites of United Nations Orga-nizations, Government of India and Government of Gujarat, Articles published in reputed journals, reports of NGOs and other organizations working on the same subject area, coupled with an assessment of the present ground reality existing in the State of Gujarat. This study was conducted in five districts of Gujarat, namely, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot. To collect the data from the primary target group, the ‘urban poor’, the authors have adopted a survey method. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire.